Children walk past a piece of wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines jet downed over Ukraine, in Petropavlivka village, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine Wednesday, July 23, 2014. TIndependent military analysts said Wednesday that the size, spread, shape and number of shrapnel impacts visible in an AP photograph of a piece of the wreckage all point to a missile system like the SA-11 Buk. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

SNIZHNE, Ukraine — Two Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jets were shot down Wednesday in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border.

The planes were downed in an area of heavy fighting between government forces and Russian-backed separatists, near where a Malaysia Airlines jet was blown out of the sky last week, killing 298 people and drawing international dismay.

The Ukrainian government said the two fighter jets had been brought down near the village of Dmytrivka, east of Donetsk and about five miles from the Russian border, where government troops have been pushing hard to cut off the flow of fighters and supplies from Russia to the insurgents.

The government said the pilots of the fighter jets ejected safely. Government forces and insurgents appeared to be racing Wednesday to find them.

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, said the two jets had been hit by fire from the Russian side of the border. “The planes were shot down from Russian territory,” Lysenko said in a statement on Twitter.

The accusation, which could not be independently verified, carries potentially serious diplomatic consequences, given the accusations by Ukraine and the United States that Russia supplied insurgents with the SA-11 surface-to-air missile system that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Andrei Purgin, a senior separatist leader in Donetsk, said rebel forces had shot down the two fighter planes using portable shoulder-fired missiles. He said that the planes had been in an active war zone, and that the Ukrainian military had continued to bomb rebel forces despite promises that military activity in the area would cease. “They haven’t stopped for one minute,” he said.

Ukrainian officials have said that two other military aircraft — an An-26 transport and another Su-25 fighter — were shot down last week with direct involvement by Russia. They said that the missile that destroyed the transport had been fired from Russian territory, and that the fighter was destroyed in a dogfight with a MiG-29 fighter that crossed into Ukrainian airspace to engage Ukrainian aircraft. Russia denied both accusations, and the insurgents insisted that they had brought down the transport on their own.

The An-26 had been flying at an altitude of more than 10,000 feet, well beyond the range of the surface-to-air rockets previously fired by insurgents, including the munitions that destroyed an Ilyushin-76 military transport as it landed in Luhansk in mid-June, killing 49. Ukrainian officials said the destruction of the An-26 showed that the insurgents had obtained and were using powerful weapons like the SA-11 that is believed to have been used against the Malaysia Airlines plane.

Heavy ground combat Wednesday made it difficult for journalists to approach Dmytrivka, where the two fighter jets were downed.

At a small checkpoint by a cornfield about 6 miles away, a rebel fighter who identified himself as a 41-year-old coal miner said he saw the two planes come down about noon.

He said the fighter jets had been flying low, apparently to drop a payload, when they were hit and the pilots bailed out. The man said rebel fighters were searching for the pilots in the surrounding fields.

“It is a hunt,” he said, looking to the east toward the site. “They’re lying in the corn. It could take all night.” As he spoke, more fighter jets buzzed overhead, but they did not drop any bombs.

By contrast, Lysenko, the Ukrainian military spokesman, said the two fighters that were brought down Wednesday were flying at an altitude of 5,200 meters, or more than 17,000 feet, putting them beyond the typical range of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles.

The loss of the jets was a significant blow to the Ukrainian military, which has a limited amount of air power, much of it inherited from the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The bodies of victims from Flight 17, which were relinquished Tuesday by the rebels who control the crash site, began arriving Wednesday at a military base in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Two military transport aircraft, one Dutch and one Australian, arrived there at midafternoon carrying 40 wooden coffins, which were greeted by a minute’s silence from dignitaries and others at the base, led by King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Two-thirds of the people on board the plane were from the Netherlands.

The identities of the bodies were not yet known. Ukraine and Malaysia have authorized the Netherlands to identify and repatriate all the recovered remains from the crash, which could take months.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in News

Vadnais Heights-based H.B. Fuller Co. on Friday announced a restructuring of various parts of its business, which it said will include the elimination or relocation of some 220 positions globally by early next year. The manufacturer of adhesives and specialty chemicals also said it would make some product changes and “operations enhancements and efficiencies” in order to “operate more effectively...

President Barack Obama has endorsed a Minnesota bid to host a World’s Fair in 2023 on the theme of wellness. In memos Friday to the secretaries of state and commerce, the president says he finds that officially recognizing the proposed expo is in the national interest. An organizing committee announced plans last year for “Minnesota World’s Fair 2023: Wellness and...

St. Paul Public Schools has established a where anyone can donate money to pay off anonymous students’ overdue lunch accounts. The district said it’s a response to a social media campaign that caused many people to call the district asking how they can give. Families in the district owe nearly $28,000 on school lunches. All district schools provide free breakfasts and most offer...

Weekend snow is on tap for much of southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, with 3 to 6 inches expected in the Twin Cities and more elsewhere. The snow will be followed next week by the season’s first subzero temperatures. According to the National Weather Service, a slow-moving low pressure system will spread snow into western Minnesota on Saturday morning and...

Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis is planning to reduce its workforce by as much as 4 percent next year. The hospital plans to eliminate up to 275 full-time positions to balance the budget and keep the opening of a $220 million ambulatory and outpatient surgery center on schedule for 2018, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The hospital’s workforce...

Two construction companies have agreed to pay a combined $147,500 in fines over safety violations in the death of one worker and injuries to another during construction of the Minnesota Vikings’ new stadium in downtown Minneapolis last year. Berwald Roofing is paying $113,200 for three violations, while Mortenson is paying $34,300 for one violation. The penalties are lower than Minnesota’s...